John Nardi

John Nardi (21 January 1916-17 May 1977) was a caporegime of the Cleveland crime family who, alongside Irish Mob boss Danny Greene, waged war against Cleveland boss John T. Licavoli during the early 1970s, intending on taking over Licavoli's rackets. Nardi was killed in a car bombing in 1977.

Early career
Born Giovanni Narcchione, John Nardi was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1916 to a family of Italian descent, and he worked as an enforcer for the local vending machine workers union before being arrested in 1939. He soon became involved with the Teamsters, and he became secretary-treasurer of Vending Machine Service Employees Local 410 during the 1940s.

Nardi became involved with rackets such as drug trafficking, extortion, labor racketeering, arms trafficking, illegal gambling, and loan sharking. In 1960, he employed longshoreman Danny Greene in stealing goods from the docks in exchange for Nardi absolving Greene's friend Art Sneperger of his gambling debts. Nardi and Greene built a lasting business partnership, and Nardi helped Greene buy a nice home and later introduced him to Jewish Mob boss Shondor Birns.

Succession dispute
In 1971, Nardi and Greene pitched a deal to fellow Mafia capo John T. Licavoli, in which Greene would force the city's garbage haulers to join Licavoli's union; the garbage industry was lucrative, as Greene had found out from his friend Mike Frato. When Frato refused to join the union, Greene was reluctant to do anything violent against the father of ten, but Nardi privately told him, "You wanted to play in the bigs. Sometimes you have to do things you don't wanna do." Greene would go on to bomb Frato's car, and later kill him in self-defense at a park.

In 1976, when Cleveland boss John T. Scalish died without naming a successor, Licavoli was chosen as the new boss due to his connections with New York City's powerful Five Families. Nardi's independence and his ties to Greene - who refused to pay Licavoli's new "street tax" - made him a threat to the Mafia, and Nardi soon stopped making tribute payments to Licavoli. Nardi survived several attempts on his life from the Mafia, and he feared that Licavoli would take over his rackets, so he decided to court Greene as an ally and do business with him.

Mob war
In the summer of 1976, the rivalry between Nardi and Licavoli escalated into a gang war, in which Greene and the Mafia employed car bombings against each other. In that summer alone, 36 car bombings occurred, drawing national attention to the Cleveland mob war and embarrassing Licavoli. Nardi and Greene went on to murder Licavoli's consigliere Leo Moceri, and Licavoli and his underboss Angelo Lonardo decided to go to New York and ask Genovese crime family boss Anthony Salerno for help in killing Greene. Not long after, Greene and Nardi also visited Salerno, asking for him to invest in a Texas ranch, where the Mafia could unionize the workers and invest in a legitimate meat business. Salerno said that he would consider their offer, but as the two of them left, Salerno summoned hitman Ray Ferritto from Los Angeles to kill the two.

Death
On 17 May 1977, Ferritto planted a bomb in Nardi's car as it was parked at a lot. Nardi and Greene met in the parking lot, where Nardi told Greene that they would soon take the town over. After Nardi happily dance-walked towards his car and turned the key in the door, the car bomb exploded, and Nardi was mortally wounded. Greene rushed over to his dying friend and comforted him before he passed away in his arms, and Greene fled in a getaway vehicle as emergency vehicles arrived at the scene.